


Cannon Fodder

by NotVerified



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Choking, Fake AH Crew, Gavin gets kidnapped, Gavin-centric, Gore, Kidnapping, Nail-ripping, Not a friendly story, OT6, Psychological Torture, Torture, Violence, sadistic indiviudals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:01:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3341126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotVerified/pseuds/NotVerified
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin Free gets kidnapped and tortured for information, that was to be expected, shit happened. What makes these guys so different? Gavin isn't just responsible for Geoff's money, but he's also responsible for the man's life. He wishes the masked assholes had put duct tape on his mouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oxygen

**Author's Note:**

> Heed the warnings please, toned it down a bit in editting, but not much. Let me know what you think, plot will start unfolding more soon. These guys definitely aren't who they seem, promise.

Gavin woke up to the feeling of steel against his thumbnail, it was the first thing his mind zeroed in on and focused its attention towards. He immediately tried to flinch away, only to realize his hands were stuck to a chair, tight, he moved his feet and similarly; they didn’t budge. He blinked open his eyes slowly, meeting the gaze of crouched man, which explained the cold metal on his fingertip, light pressure being applied to a pair of pliers. They rested just on the edge of his nail, ready to pull and tear. It shocked him into being awake. 

“Hey, there you are.” The guy cooed, and Gavin looked behind him at the other two men; their faces were covered unlike the one in front of him, simple white masks that looked like they could be bought at any craft store. Fear and panic hit his core at the same time, It gave him an eerie feeling and he tried to recall how he’d gotten into this mess in the first place.

It’d been a heist, but nothing had gone wrong, he’d been fine. Or he thought he had been, they’d gotten away, they’d escaped for bloody sakes! In fact, he’d been on his way home when a car had snatched him up and shoved him in the backseat. His first initial thought had been the government, as the chloroformed him and held him down. Now, he was pretty sure it wasn’t. It may have been a rival gang, or something. 

“How attached to your fingernails are you?” The man to the left laughed, reaching forward to smack Gavin’s cheek a bit roughly.

“What the bloody fuc- ah!” Gavin’s sentence was cut off as the pain hit, a loud cry escaping his throat as he struggled in his chair restlessly. He could feel the odd feeling of a cracked nail, breaking away from his skin and causing tears to breach the corner of his eyes. 

“Alright, good, you’re awake and ready to cooperate, yeah?” The man without the mask said, smirking as he took the blood-stained pliers away, tossing them to one of his friends. 

Gavin glanced down at his thumb and gagged, who knew the skin looked so gross underneath his nails? Who even took someone’s nail off without even asking them a question first? “Wh-what do you want?” He bit out, teeth gritted and eyes harsh as they met his kidnappers.

“Secrets, heist plans, how we can kill Geoff Ramsey.” The man mused, counting the ideas on his fingers as if he was making them up on the spot. When Gavin looked confused, he continued with a roll of his deep-set brown eyes. “Yes, we want him dead. But who doesn’t? He’s the wealthiest criminal this side of Los Santos.”

“He’s not as rich as he see-” Gavin started to say, interrupted by the harsh slap of a hand to his face.

“Don’t give us that bullshit, we understand you’re well trained cannon fodder,kid, but c’mon, give us something.” The man prompted, grabbing the chair and dragging it closer, his face inches away from Gavin’s own; their noses bumped at he moved around to keep their eye contact. 

“I’m not cannon fodder, and I’m not telling you shite.” Gavin hissed out, bracing himself for another blow to the face. It came, but it was less of a punch and more of a gentle caress, a two-fingered touch stroked across his left cheek. 

“Alright boys, have at ‘im.” The main guy spoke, smiling once more at Gavin before standing up and walking towards the door, turning back once more. “Hopefully, the next time we see each other, you’ll be much more willing.”

Gavin struggled against his binds as the door slammed shut, giving wary glances to the masked guys as they talked quietly amongst themselves. It panicked him to no end that they weren’t just gonna beat him up, they were planning something. 

He found out what they were talking about moments later when he saw about a three foot rope in one of the guys hands and the other walked in front of him, tilting his head slightly, as if he were pondering over Gavin’s form. The simple mask only made it creepier, more terrifying, more real. He got a better look at what they were wearing now that they were closer, both dressed in well-fitting jeans and black t-shirts, the print was unreadable with the way anime jackets were tied buttoned around them. They had their sleeves rolled up, one’s hair was blonde and choppy, spiked up near the front, the one behind him had darker skin, browner hair, shorter, but both of the cuts were similar. He pretended not to notice the scars along their arms. 

He didn’t get to do much observing, considering his breath was cut off in seconds, the rope scratching his throat and pulled tight by the brown-haired masked man’s hands. He coughed and spluttered for what seemed like minutes, his vision just dotting on the cusp of going black when the guy in front of him motioned for him to release. Gavin heaved in a breath, drinking the oxygen down like he’d been staved off it for year. He was just beginning to feel like he wasn’t about to die when the guy in front of him spoke. 

“Again.” He demanded, watching Gavin’s eyes widen as the rope was pulled tight around his throat once more. Gavin struggled pitifully against the rope, gasping for any inch of oxygen he could get, desperation flooding through him as he panicked, teetering on the edge of passing out. 

“Ple-please, no more.” He pleaded when they let up again, met only with cruel laughter behind the masks. 

Gavin didn’t know how long it went on for, this sick push and pull of oxygen and lack there of, bringing him towards darkness that almost seemed sweet by the fifth time the man in front of him had uttered the words, “Again.” 

After the rope was removed completely, he was crying, tears falling over his reddened cheeks as he gasped and choked for breath. His head hung back as he gasped deliciously at the air, who knew it tasted so good? The relief didn’t last long, and within moments he took a punch to the jaw, flinching away and letting his head roll around for a minute as he tried to focus on reality.   
He thought they’d leave him after that, but they didn’t, it seemed they had no intention of ending this torture. He watched as the man in front of him sat down, steadying Gavin’s foot and holding up a nail to show him, the metal looked clean, at least, he took the hammer from the brown-haired masked man, placed the thin point to the top of Gavin’s foot and brought the hammer down. Gavin’s scream was blood-curdling, loud and harsh as he struggled in a vain attempt.

“Gonna talk, beautiful?” The guy cooed, hammering lightly on the embedded nail.

“Yeah, yeah. Please, no more.” Gavin nodded, screaming out again when the nail was yanked from his flesh.

Gavin had assumed when he said that they’d leave, bring back the other guy, but they didn’t. They just walked away, to be fair he guessed it could’ve been only minutes, it just felt so much longer than that. 

It wasn’t just minutes, he knew that after a while of counting seconds, trying to distract himself from his rough-breathing and the pain of his injuries. He couldn’t stand to look at either his thumb nail, or his foot. It wasn’t as bad as some things, once they’d found Ryan with two of his teeth yanked out, laughing around the blood in his mouth and strung up from the ceiling by his wrists. When cut loose, the man had been steadied, falling over the minute someone let him go, none of them were sure if he’d been crying or laughing.

It was part of the job, part of being so close to crime-lords, and killing people. If Gavin believed in karma, he’d had said this was it, however, to him it was mostly just circumstance. Wrong place, wrong time, or stalked and chosen, he wasn't sure. 

Turns out he had a lot of time to think about things, whether that was how fire grew, or why humans’ brains named things, or how our brains worked in general. He thought of hypothetical questions to ask Geoff when he got saved, thought of everything he could joke about, thought about who exactly he was going to kiss when he got back, first.

He wasn’t sure they were even coming back, maybe they’d died and he was gonna stay tied up, he was going to starve. Or maybe the apocalypse happened, and he was the only one left alive, maybe if he could just break his chair- nope, chair’s indestructible.

The room was too dark to know if it was day or night, he slept when he could, and cried when he couldn’t, tried to keep his throat from being dry with his own spit, and by the end of the days he just wanted out of the binds more than he wanted to be alive.

He was pretty sure he was starting to go insane.


	2. Comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this story has kind of run away from me a little bit, I know where it's going but it's definitely a bit on the weirder side.

Gavin swore he heard voices, echoing around in his head and sliding down his spine. Or maybe that was sweat, he didn’t know anymore. His back throbbed with the pain of sitting like he was, the binds keeping him from slumping forward. He was sure he’d starve here, he could physically feel the acid in his stomach eating him away. He wanted to cry and sob, but his body didn’t have any more liquid in it, or so it felt. 

He felt disgusting, every inch of him felt dirty, which wasn’t shocking, it wasn’t like he could move. He smelled worse, he was sure, but he stopped caring about that long ago. He just needed food, water, anything… anything at all. 

He hadn’t bothered praying, if there was a God, if there was anything, he wouldn’t care about Gavin, not the bomb expert who had killed hundreds, both civilians and not.. why would he matter? Maybe this was punishment for that, maybe he’d died and this was hell. Maybe the guy had actually choked him to death.

He ran his tongue over his cracked, broken lips, but it did little to help, instantly drying on the features. He coughed, ignoring the pain in his throat as he looked around the room again. He’d already memorized every feature of the small square empty room, there was a mattress in the corner, dingy and gross looking, but that was it. There was no other furniture besides the chair he was sitting in. Everything was either soundproof, or he really was entirely alone. 

He’d already tried screaming, already tried sobbing, already tried cussing. Nothing worked to get anyone to notice him and eventually he just stopped trying at all. He stopped try to move his chair, and he stopped trying to escape the binds. His wrists thanked him.

He could feel phantom hands on his body, ruffling his hair and tickling his sides, hugs and pats on the back and shoulder wormed their way under his skin. He missed contact, he missed talking and conversation, he missed his boy’s, he missed their smiles and their insults. 

He thought about everything from life to death, to protecting Geoff, to making sure he held his tongue so that the man would stay alive. Maybe they’d already attacked his crew, and they’d lost and now they just couldn’t find Gavin. Maybe his crew had won.

He counted seconds, minutes, the number of cracks in the concrete, the number of times his body seized up in pain. 

He had started to expect they’d never come back, no one was gonna save him and no one was going to torture him anymore. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

He waited, and waited, and considered what it was gonna be like to starve to death. 

He didn’t expect someone to walk in. He wasn’t one of the guy’s from before, he had a sweet looking face, and the smile was instant as he looked Gavin over, chuckling softly to himself as he walked over. 

“I’m taking you to have a shower. Don’t fight me.” He mused, and Gavin wanted to scoff, like he had the energy to even throw a punch. He felt the ropes being cut, flexing his wrist as relief flooded through him when he could finally bend his arm. 

The same was done to his other wrist, the man even ran his thumbs along the aching muscles of a minute before he moved down to untie his feet. Gavin thought weakly of kicking him, but he really didn’t want to be stuck here any longer. This was the first contact he’d had in what felt like months. 

He was hauled to his feet by the surprisingly strong man, feeling hands under his arms guiding him toward the door and kicking it open. 

“I-” Gavin struggled to say something, to talk, to ask to be let go.

“I know.” The guy mused, leading him down the hall of what looked like a dingy basement, a warehouse maybe? He wasn’t sure. “It’s okay, we’re here to help.”

“What?” Gavin whispered, wincing as he tripped over his feet. He felt so heavy and every bone ached. The man didn’t let him stumble too much, propping him up more.

“Don’t worry about it, you reek, come on.” He chuckled, and the sound was sweet like candy. It had all of Gavin’s alarms going off. 

The walk to the shower wasn’t too much longer, and he set Gavin down on the toilet seat, throwing a dingy looking towel in the corner and grabbing a fresher one out of the closet. He smiled, reaching down to pull Gavin’s shirt over his head, ignoring the feeble attempts to push away the arms. 

“You don’t have permission to have privacy yet, sorry sweetheart.” The guy mused, tugging off Gavin’s shoes and pants, doing the same with his boxers and leaving Gavin exposed. He felt even more disgusting with the clothes to not block out the mess, but the guy didn’t seem to mind, only helping Gavin step into the shower. 

Gavin felt shamed and exposed as the man grabbed the showerhead, turning the cold water on and beginning to spray off Gavin’s body. After that, his hair was washed and his body scrubbed clean. The man shut off the water and stepped back away, leaving Gavin shivering as he stood there, cold and frightened. The man made a sympathetic face as he held out a plush towel, encouraging Gavin to curl up in it. He wrapped it around the man’s body, smiling when Gavin curled his face up in his neck and fell forward, letting the man take most of his weight. 

“Sh, it’ll be okay.” The man encouraged, already pulling Gavin out of the shower. “I’m gonna walk you back to the room now, maybe get you something to eat...would you like that?”

“Why, why’re you being nice?” Gavin murmured, grabbing the towel and wrapping it around himself tightly. 

“We’re not here to be mean to you, Gavin.” The man mumbled, lifting Gavin up onto the counter and checking out his broken finger nail, he grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink and bandaged it up. 

“Then why did they do all this?” Gavin huffed out, using his foot to kick at the man with all the anger he could manage. No, fuck him, he wouldn’t be treated like this. He wouldn’t be part of this shit.

“Don’t.” The man warned, grabbing his foot and pressing a finger towards the wound where the nail had previously been. “We’re doing this for a reason, okay? Trust us, behave, you’ll be fine.”

“Let me go and I’ll be extra bloody fine, you fuckin’ creep!” Gavin growled, kicking his other foot, but his movements were slow and the man was fast.

“Do you have to go to the bathroom before we go?” The guy huffed, pulling Gavin down from the sink roughly. He shoved Gavin near the toilet and crossed his arms over his chest. “Go if you do, I’m not checking it for a while.”

After Gavin was done the man grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the door. He was still naked under the towel, and he wondered if the man would give him some clothes or not. He hoped so, it was cold enough in that room. 

To Gavin’s surprise when they got to the room, he wasn’t pushed back into the chair, the man instead choosing to lead him towards the mattress. Gavin felt his heart beat faster as his mind swam with what it could mean. He was pushed gently unto it, curling the towel closer to him as he shivered.

“I’ll be right back.” The man murmured, running a hand across Gavin’s forehead. 

Gavin tried to understand, tried to piece together exactly what was going on, exactly what was going to happen to him. He was terrified, in so many forms of the word. How was he supposed to make it out of this alive and well? How was he going to be sane again? He didn’t know.

He glanced up at the door opening after a few minutes, he’d already flopped back on the mattress due to his inability to hold himself up. Exhaustion felt like it was burned into his bones, and his hunger was making him weak and easy prey. It was the same man as before, but he held a blanket and a box of something. 

The blanket was thin, and it looked ratty, but by the time the man had come over and wrapped Gavin’s trembling form in it, he could only be thankful. 

“Hey buddy.” The guy cooed, sitting on the bed next to him and running a hand over his arm. “Want to eat a little something? Maybe have a bit of water?”

Gavin didn’t hesitate to nod, moving to sit up on his knees, the man held out the box and Gavin opened it. A miniature water bottle was nestled next to half of a sandwich, it looked like the sandwich was mostly bread, but fuck it, it was food and he was starved. He took a sip of the water greedily before shoving the food in his mouth quickly. He pretended not to notice the man’s hands running across his knees, pulling the blanket tighter around him and occasionally chuckling.

“I want you to know that you’re here for your own good.” The guy murmured, his tone soft and his smile was sweet enough that Gavin briefly paused his chewing. “We want to help you, you’re not a bad person, Gavin.”

“The bloody hell does that mean?” Gavin frowned, shoving the last bite of bread into his mouth before washing it down with the room-temperature water.

“You do bad things, but you have a chance to change…” The man grinned, grabbing Gavin’s hand and squeezing it lightly. “We can help you get away from that crew.”

“You.. literally kidnapped me and ripped off my fingernail!” Gavin shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t want to get away from that crew, thanks.”

A sigh echoed through the room and the man in front of him stood up, grabbing the box back and and setting it away from the british man. “Just tell us where we can find Geoff Ramsey.”

“No.” Gavin growled back, he didn’t expect the man to pull out a knife, and he quickly got to work trying to shove himself away from the bed, away from the knife. 

The man had a quick response time though, and he moved to straddle Gavin roughly, pinning the man’s arms to his sides and setting the knife against his chest. Gavin screamed out, struggling desperately against the man.

“If you had cooperated, none of this would’ve happened.” The man grumbled, not hesitating to slice the knife down across his chest. The pain was shocking and harsh and Gavin went pliant out of fear of it digging deeper into his skin. 

“S-stop.” Gavin murmured, forcing back the tears, he refused to let him see them.

“Shush.” The man grit out before he stood up, flipping the knife closed and sliding it back into his pocket. “I’ll see you later, we’ll start your change.”

“My what?”

“You’re gonna change for the good, Gavin, you’ll see.”


	3. Falling To Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a filler chapter, sorry!   
> Wanted to get at least a little something out for you guys. Next chapter will be more angsty Gavin filled.   
> Thought you'd be curious to see how the boys are taking it.

Geoff ran his hands through his hair, his eyes were red and wet, but he hadn’t been crying- not for a while anyway. It’d been fucking days since they’d heard from him, since his wire went dead, since his yells echoed through the earpieces.

He felt like every piece of him was shattering and re-fixing itself to try to find something to do, to try to fix this, to send people out to find him, to find him, to know. His boyfriends depended on him to remain level headed, they depended on him as a powerful boss, a leader, a lover, to keep things going well. To save their british asshole. He’d tried, he’d tried so hard, thought of every potential solution, called hundreds of people ranging from crime lords, to street criminals. No one knew, no one saw anything, no one would tell him a drop of information he didn’t already know. 

He sat on a chair in front of the table, laptop on and searching, just like he had been the day before, just like the day before that. Occasionally he sipped a beer, but he couldn’t eat. The rest weren’t farring much better, Michael had broke down in a fit when it happened, screaming at them like they could change it, his fist had ended up connecting with Ryan’s jaw for reasons none of them knew, and Ryan had pinned him down with all the anger and frustration fueled inside the calm-psychotic of a man. 

Their screams never stopped that night as they took their feelings out on each others bodies and hearts, insults lunged as far as the fists did and no one wanted to worm their way in between that. So they let them be, and ignored it when they heard similar sobs coming from the back rooms. Jack had had no fear about letting anyone know he was crying, curling into himself on the floor and waiting for Ray to hug unto him. Ray was calm, but not okay, Geoff knew that. 

They only left the house to look for random warehouses, Ryan and Michael had started four accidental gang wars by barging in and demanding someone the group didn’t know. Geoff was overwhelmed with trying to clean up their messes and find Gavin. 

“Geoff.” Michael murmured, sitting down beside him and resting a hand on his arm.

“What?” Geoff mumbled back, not taking his eyes off the computer screen that was blurring in front of him.

“You need to eat, to sleep.. you look like shit man.” Michael rubbed his arm softly, pulling occasionally.

“I will when I find him.” Geoff snapped, tugging his arm away roughly. 

Michael sighed and stood up, walking away from his boss. Geoff didn’t have the energy to feel bad about being rude.

No one spoke to Geoff after that, but they curled around the living room to sleep, no longer bothering to try to fall asleep in the bed, no one could without Gavin. It felt too empty. Geoff fell asleep at his laptop, and Jack wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, sliding a pillow under his head and kissing his cheek softly. 

The next morning Ray was awake first, looking through pictures of Gavin on his phone with a small smile, laughing occasionally and tearing up. The man was making faces again, twisting his features up in odd angles and posing with random people on the street. It only made Ray’s tears fall harder. Michael blinked awake, peering at the phone and frowning. “What are you looking at?”

“Pictures of Gavin.” Ray answered, laughing slightly at the next selfie. Silence ensued for a few long minutes before Michael spoke back up. 

“Why in the fuck are you doing that?” Michael grunted, anger lacing on his face as Ray turned the phone to show him the picture.

“I don’t know- I miss him, I guess.” Ray shrugged.

“Well stop, he’s not fucking gone or anything, he’s just lost.” Michael growled out, sitting up and rubbing his eyes of sleep.

“We heard him scream Michael, for all we know we could be looking for a body.” Ray spoke, though his voice cracked and tears streamed down his face.

“Fuck off, we’re not looking for a goddamn body.” Michael huffed back, crossing his arms over his chest. “He’s gonna be fine!”

“I just don’t know why no one in this fucking relationship can talk about their feelings, why can’t we be emotional over this!?” Ray yelled back, standing up and spreading his arms out. It startled Geoff away, as well as Ryan and Jack, all three of them looking over at the lads blearily. 

“Because he’s not fucking dead you little bitch!” Michael yelled back, standing up and shoving Ray. “We just need to find him.”

“I’m not being a bitch, you’re being a dickhead who doesn’t know how to feel anything but anger!”

“Guys, stop- we’re all stressed and worried. This isn’t going to help.” Jack sighed.

“When /I/ find the fuckers that took him. I’m killing every goddamn one of them, and stringing them up from their fucking insides.” Michael growled out.

“/We’ll/ find him, Michael. We will.” Geoff nodded, pushing the pillow away and turning his attention towards his computer.

“Let’s just hope it’s not too late.” Ryan mumbled, pulling Ray into his arms and stroking his hair softly.

“I can’t live without him.” Ray murmured, sobbing softly into Ryan’s shoulder.

“I know.” Ryan nodded.


	4. Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, there's that plot! Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments.

Gavin wasn’t sure how long he stayed on the bed, how long he had to wait for the man to come back, but it felt like days passed again, he knew it wasn’t true, it’d probably been only a few hours but it felt like so much more. It felt so much worse than it was.

He wished he’d been given clothes, something other than this thin excuse of a blanket, he felt exposed and vulnerable and there was no way this mattress was clean. He wondered about everything that had been said to him, how they were going to change him, how they were going to make him better. He was confused, criminals didn’t make other criminals better. He trailed curious fingers over the injuries he’d been given so far, the broken nail, the hole in his foot, the newest knife wound. 

Why were they doing this to him and how was he supposed to escape?

The door opening startled him, a masked man walked in, the mask wasn’t as simple as the ones before, it was intricate and looked hand painted, a teddy bear face laced with scars and safety pins. It sent a bolt of fear straight through him and he curled up closer to the wall, wrapping the blanket tightly around his body and staring at the man. 

It didn’t stop him from walking forward, stocky build confident and swift as he grabbed out at Gavin’s arm and yanked him to his feet, he tried to cover himself up with his hands but the man didn’t seem to be affected by Gavin’s lack of clothing. 

The masked man’s hand settled on his shoulder, shoving him forward, the strength obvious in the man, it was clear he was used to this. Gavin shuddered at the cold air when the man opened the door, stumbling slightly as the man guided him. He was too afraid to speak to the terrifying mask, too nervous to ask questions, to ask about the doors leading down the hall, the only sound the steps of his bare feet on the concrete and the man’s heavy boots on the same concrete. 

After a few minutes, Gavin noticed one of the doors they were about to come up to, was wide open, a slight trickle of light that had him curiously leaning forward to see. There was a man on his knees inside, a cloth inside his mouth, tied around the back of his head. His hands were bound behind him and his chest was bare, wounds littered down his chest and the man behind him was wearing a leather jacket and a simple mask. He saw the man’s body spasm out, jumping himself at the muffled scream of pain coming from the guy on his knees. He didn’t know what had happened till he got a little further and saw the iron rod.

Gavin thought he was gonna be sick, eyes only able to tear away when the guy behind him shoved him harshly, continuing to walk him down the hall. What building even had this long of a hall? They didn’t reach where they were going until minutes later, the masked man knocking on the door and it opened after a few seconds. 

A woman opened the door with a soft smile, holding her hand out for Gavin to take and nodding towards the masked man behind him. “Thank you, Paladin.” She murmured, her voice soft and welcoming but Gavin wasn’t dumb enough to fall for it. 

She shut the door behind Gavin and lead him over to a chair in front of a desk, and he was cruelly remembered of a courtroom. He sat down on the leather awkwardly, hands covering himself instantly, it was bloody weird to be this exposed.

“Would you like something to wear?” She asked softly, looking over some stuff on the clipboard resting on the desk.

“Yes.” Gavin nodded instantly, letting out a relieved sigh when he saw her grab a pair of boxers from one of the drawers. Still, it wasn’t handed to him.

“Okay, well. I need you to answer a few questions first.” She smiled over at him, checking off a few things on the board before sitting down. “But before that, we’re gonna go over some things. One, you will not try to leave this office. There are Paladins waiting outside of the office for it.”

“Paladin?” Gavin frowned, looking back towards the door.

“It’s what the masked ones are called, dear.” She cooed. “Two, you will not try to harm me in any way. We haven’t seen any unnecessarily violent actions from you, so I doubt you will. But, to be safe.”

Gavin stayed silent, swallowing under her gaze.

“Alright, questions. How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know.” Gavin shook his head.

“And how old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“How many people have you killed?”

“I don’t know.”

“You seem to not know a lot of things, Mr.Free.” She chuckled, shaking her head at him.

“I don’t know what’s going on.” He admitted honestly.

“Think of this… as a rehabilitation facility.” She smiled. 

“Rehab? My bloody nail is gone, what kind of rehab have you been to?” Gavin scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yes well, sadly there isn’t a facility for the kind of crime you guys do.” She tossed him the boxers. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Is that it?” Gavin questioned, sliding the boxers up. “Answer three questions and get things?”

“We’re based off of a reward system, yes. Good behavior is rewarded and naughty behavior won’t be tolerated.” 

Gavin went silent again, awkwardly running his hands along his arms.

“Now tell me, Mr.Free. Why do you think we chose you out of your entire group?” 

“I don’t know…”

“Because you have potential, you can help us We can’t change them alone- we need you.”

“You’re not gonna be- you can’t just change who people are.” 

“You kill people, Mr.Free. Not just other criminals, not just cops, you kill innocent people. People with families, with lives.” She smiled. “Were you always like that? Did you break animal necks when you were a child?”

“Well, no, of course not.”

“Then, what changed?” She prompted.

“This is bloody stupid. It’s not gonna work.” He hissed. “You’re a hypocrite, you’re /all/ criminals.”

“We’re changing the world, Gavin.”

“You’re a crazy bitch.” Gavin growled.

“You haven’t seen the half of it, honey.” She smiled again, checking of her check board again and standing up, she opened the door, grabbing Gavin by the arm and standing him up. “Take him past solitary, and then to the cages. Show him what happens if he doesn’t obey, and then give him level one punishment.”

Gavin felt the strong grip of the teddy-bear masked man lunge into his hair, tearing him from the room and making Gavin cry out. He was shoved down the hall, taking a few turns until they reached what he could only guess was solitary. It wasn’t too different than the halls before, except it was surrounded by the sounds of crying, painful wretches and sniffles, and he saw another Paladin standing by one of the doors, key in hand. The teddy bear masked man tugged him to a halt, and Gavin watched curiously as the door opened and a sobbing man fell from the room. 

The smell was God-awful and the guy looked like he’d been through hell and back, scratches across his face, burns along his arms, and apologies were flooding from his throat, almost like they weren’t of his own accord. The Paladin picked him easily, and Gavin swore he heard a soft shushing sound. 

“Between you and me, I don’t like working with Solitary, so stay out of it.” The masked man behind him whispered, before pushing him forward.

“Yeah…” Gavin murmured.

There were seven cages in the room he was taken to next, but only one of them was filled, the person inside was sleeping and squished against the too-small cage. He didn’t want that either, jesus, this entire place was fucking crazy. He’d almost entirely forgotten about his punishment until he found himself sitting in a chair in a middle of a room that wasn’t like his. 

“This is, uh, for calling her a bitch.” The masked man informed him, strapping Gavin down to the chair and tugging the leather tightly. 

“You don’t have to right? Just-just say you did it.” Gavin pleaded, watching him take out a crow bar. 

“It’s five hits. I’ll try to be gentle, but if you don’t have marks… they’ll know.” The man informed him, not wasting any time in winding up a hit to slam against Gavin’s chest, the pain was harsh, and if that was what being gentle was he never wanted to find out what rough was.

By the time it was over Gavin had tears streaming down his face and he felt like he couldn’t breathe at all, that didn’t stop the man from hauling him to his feet and moving him towards the bathroom, explaining that he wouldn’t be able to go again tonight, once Gavin was done he shoved him back towards his room, slamming the door shut and locking it. 

Gavin didn’t hold back the tears as he made his way over to the mattress in the corner, curling up into it and holding onto his chest tightly. This place was hell on earth, and he hadn’t even experienced the worst of it. God damn, he wanted his boyfriends, he wanted them to find him, to save him. 

“Please.” He begged to the empty air. “Please, please…”


End file.
